Human Institutions That Don’t Work, The WTO



2009 November, 29th
Phil Butler
Phil Butler
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Tomorrow’s WTO Conference in Geneva is not expected to accomplish its purpose of forging forward with a more free world trade agreement. The Doha round of talks, which were launched in Qatari capital in 2001, have been deadlocked since then. This conference, the upcoming climate change one in Copenhagen, and pretty much every broad International negotiation out there might reveal a deeper truth about globalization. Could it be that our governments have not acted in the world’s best interest. Could it be that policy makers have not been intuitive enough, can they not see where their agreements end up? More importantly, are President Obama and his counterparts prepared to serve us all effectively?

The WTO conference has not even begun and already demonstrations in Geneva have turned violent. Geneva may not collapse under the weight of protesters as Seattle did in 2001 when globalization was heatedly rallied against. But, with the current economic crisis threatening so many, just the potential for massive demonstrations may be more than enough to derail these ill fated talks. The delegates set to push for even more free trade, are critical of President Obama and American businesses for not engaging in support of continued globalization, but this only indicates that Obama and some US businesses are not stupid. The us industrial machine, labor force, banking systems and its economy in general have to a large extent been crippled by an ill advised and accelerated globalization effort.

Politicians – Where Experts Are Needed

There are two problems with world leaders even engaging in International talks in the first place. First, their agendas are fairly narrow, even more narrow than the interests of the peoples they represent – they are politicians after all. Secondly, these “agendas” limit the real outcomes of talks even more because any “experts” who might be involved are either squashed (unless of course their merit is weighed carefully with the agenda), or the best experts are not invited to the party in the first place. In short, the talks themselves are in question even before they start. A case in point maybe being Baroness Ashton of Upholland’s position as Trade Commissioner for the EU. Politics being one criticism, and her relative lack of experience in trade matters another. Appointments like this are pretty standard Internationally, and may account for some of the shortsightedness we see.

Using the good Baroness as a continual example, her negotiation of the EU – South Korea trade agreement just last month is a potential industrial disaster second only to America’s NAFTA folly in the 90’s. The European auto industry alone stands give South Korean auto manufacturers and even greater advantage. Of course Ms. Ashton is selling the deal like a win-win, but where cars are concerned the EU only exported 33,000 cars to South Korea last year while Europe was flooded by some 450,000 Kias and Hyundais. The hurting European auto industry can ill afford this unrealistic deal, people in Europe are going to lose their jobs, and investments are going to be lost. BASF, some UK pharmaceutical companies, and Royal Philips Electronics NV stand to gain some business, but the overall trade off is built on rhetoric and promises of jobs with nebulous numbers to back claims.

Let Downs At Every Level

Why it has not occurred to our leaders that all our problems are interrelated is a mystery. We have separate conferences to solve problems with the same root causes and wonder why the world gets into more and more trouble? People being industrious, trading, buying, selling, and living together are all part of the same system which threatens individuals, companies, and Earth itself. The Copenhagen Climate Summit and the WTO Conference cannot be separated any more than nuclear disarmament and human rights can be from the issues which confront us. The answers to one set of problems are inextricably tied to the others. For trade, price and a certain kind of business success having been the stimulus for these agreement, when the “real” costs of trade should be weighed. By real costs I mean all the environmental impacts, human impacts, geographical variables, and long term effects.

The long and short of globalization is that the world is not ready for it. Until real experts create refined guidelines outside political or business considerations, guidelines which take into account jobs, climate, internal and external economics, and many other considerations, today’s trade agreements resemble one sided shady business deals in practice. China may have the biggest and cheapest workforce in the world, but are textiles best produced and shipped from there? Does it make sense for cheap labor to be cheap any more? There are so many questions being answered by people with vested interests beyond the well being of the public. President Obama and other world leaders need to address these issues as interdependent rather than separate issues. The WTO, whether they like it or not, has failed us all.

About the Author

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Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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